In this study we explored the subjective experience of family stigma as reported by children of persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our data indicated that family stigma in the area of AD was primarily experienced in three dimensions: caregivers' stigma, lay public's stigma, and structural stigma. We found that in all these dimensions family stigma follows a process characterized by three core elements: cognitive attributions, emotional reactions, and behavioral responses. Findings of this study highlight the profound stigma confronting caregivers of persons with AD. What emerges is a poignant picture of adult children living with stigmatic beliefs while providing care for their parents with AD. We suggest that swift steps be taken to deal with these stigmatic beliefs. Mainly, structural discrimination must end if all citizens are to receive truly fair and equitable health care services and benefits.

In this study we examined the meaning of abortion in the religious Jewish sector on both the individual and the couple levels. In a qualitative, descriptive, interpretive-narrative study, semistructured interviews were conducted with five religious couples. Both members of each couple were interviewed separately. The findings show that although both members of the couple experienced spontaneous abortion as a loss, each expressed it in different ways and thus perceived it differently in the couple relationship. Men who demonstrated the ability to bypass their own pain and made an effort to respond to their partners' distress motivated the women's exit from the isolation cycle, and contributed to a sense of dyadic cohesion and to creating a meaning for their "togetherness." These findings are discussed in the context of research and theoretical literature that deal with bereavement and mourning processes, and with constructing meaning for a pregnancy-related loss.

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Awareness of the possible power relations and conflicts between interviewer and interviewee in qualitative research has grown in recent years; however, scant attempts have been made to analyze this phenomenon empirically. The current work uses interviews conducted with battered women and batterers to understand the co-construction of the narrative of domestic violence. The emergent narrative style is shown to be the product of the interaction between interviewer and interviewee. Four different narrative styles are identified: the narrative style (a) as a struggle, (b) as deflection, (c) as negotiation, and (d) as a self-observation process. The divergent goals and agendas of interviewers and interviewees are discussed, as well as the replication of relational patterns of the interviewee in the interview process. Emphasized are the implications for the study of sensitive domains and power relations in qualitative research.

The authors of this qualitative study analyze Israeli hospital social workers' emotional responses to working with civilian casualties in the wake of an unprecedented surge of terrorist violence. Data are based on four focus groups conducted with 38 hospital social workers in relation to their experience with clients in the emergency room. Three themes were identified: (a) Restoring a lost sense of personal security as a necessary stepping-stone toward resuming professional performance, (b) Meeting the families'pain and responding to it, and (c) Disconnecting emotionally in the service of the professional self. The authors discuss the findings in light of the literature on peritraumatic dissociation among helpers.